Not a single hospital in the North West has yet been exempted from load shedding. The National Health Department announced that 72 public hospitals in eight provinces are no longer subject to the consequences of Eskom’s power cuts.

The DoH said negotiations are continuing with Eskom to ensure that the North-West hospitals also benefit. It is also working to get more of the Northern Cape’s hospitals exempt.

“More efforts are being made to implement exemption of health facilities in provinces such as the Northern Cape and North-West as a matter of urgency in line with the commitment made to ensure that no province is left behind,” the DoH said.

This is the updated list of exempted facilities per province:

• Eastern Cape(7)
• Free State(14)
• Gauteng(17)
• KZN(15)
• Mpumalanga(4)
• Western Cape(4)
• Northern Cape(1)
• North-West(0)

More load shedding exemptions

DoH has provided Eskom with a list of 212 priority hospitals across the country to be considered for possible exclusion from loadshedding on a phased approach. And 67% of them are supplied directly by municipalities, while Eskom supplies the remaining 33%.

The preliminary network analysis revealed that 28 hospitals in various provinces can be excluded from load shedding by building new infrastructure at the estimated cost of R100 million.”

Eskom has since announced that stage 3 and 2 load shedding will be implemented continuously from today until Monday morning. DoH spokesperson Foster Mohale said the power cuts had disrupted the provision of health services.

No lives lost due to load shedding

Mohale said so far, no patients had died due to the load shedding. This is according to reports submitted to the department by health facilities.

“Although our hospitals have backup generators to maintain power supply during power outages, the fact of the matter is, load shedding is disruptive. The power cuts mainly affect health services in clinics,” said Mohale.

He said the outcome of the latest round of engagements with Eskom would ensure people get the care they require.

“The department is succeeding with efforts to ensure no life is lost because of load shedding because saving lives is our priority,”. -Health-e News.